Airports to get more police

Safety at Czech airports will be secured by 221 new police officers. The Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on its website that the proposal had been approved by the government.

The increase in officers is in response to the security situation in Europe and to new safety requirements at Václav Havel Airport Prague. The number of officers will increase gradually until 2018.

The number of police officers is based on a Ministry of the Interior analysis, using data from documents provided by the five Czech international airports.

“Under the Prague Airport Security Concept, approved by the government in August 2016, the airport plans to significantly extend security measures. Since we are not strengthening the powers of airport security personnel, this requires a higher presence of security forces,” Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (ČSSD) said on the ministry website.

At Václav Havel Airport there will be 200 more police. The remaining 21 officers will operate at four other international airports in the Czech Republic — Brno, Ostrava, Karlovy Vary and Pardubice.

The police will continue to carry out tasks at airports that cannot be performed by airport security staff. These include the protection of public order, security of persons and property, tasks in civil aviation protection, and evaluating information from facial recognition systems and license plates.

The Czech police will not substitute for the activities of the airport operator, which is obliged to provide its security staff.